I flinched at the heat in his voice. “I-I-I—I’m sorry. I just--.”
He shook his head. “I don’t want to hear it. I don’t want to hear your pathetic little excuses and how you’re going to blame someone else for an action you’ve wanted to take for a while now. Right?”
“No. That’s not right at all.”
He scoffed. “Like I’m going to believe you in the first place.”
“Why? Because you can’t believe my sister? Well, join the club. She was just as much of a bitch to you as she was to me.”
“Oh, really?” he asked as he started typing away again. “And how do you figure?”
I took a step toward his desk. “For starters, my junior year? She switched out my shampoo with hair removal cream and I had to wear a wig for the entire year until my hair grew back. Want to know why she did it?”
“No.”
“Well, I’m going to tell you anyway. She did it because her 2.0 GPA wasn’t garnering her the cheerleading scholarships she thought she could get by shaking her tits at people.”
He peeked over at me. “She didn’t go to college?”
I blinked. “Why do you sound like you feel sorry for her?”
He cleared his throat. “Trust me, it’s not nearly as bad as what she did to me.”
“Oh, it’s not? Well, try this on for size: when I graduated? I wanted to invite a few people over to my house to celebrate. I invited a couple of my best friends as well as a guy I had a crush on, and Maggie was in charge of the cake. Want to know what kind of cake she got?”
“One stuffed with condoms?”
I blinked back tears. “Worse. She got a cake with a naked picture of me plastered on top of it. Set it right on the table for everyone to see. And you want to know what happened?”
He stopped typing. “What?”
I scoffed. “Mom and Dad defended her and punished me when I slapped her across the face. You’re not the only one she tortured, and you’re not the only one who crossed the entire country to get away from her. So, if anything, we’re allies because we survived her.”
He started typing again. “Get out of my office.”
“Mr. Ryker, please, just listen to me.”
His voice lowered to a growl. “You’ll be punished on my watch when I deem fit. And right now, I don’t deem it fit to punish you. I have too much work to do since one of my co-workers wants to pawn her shit off onto everyone else, so if you don’t mind I need to get back at it.”
I shrugged. “Then, have Bonnie do her job and you won’t be staying late, just like me.”
He flashed me a stare filled with so much hatred that I almost puked again. “Get. The fuck. Out.”
I shook my head as I flipped the lock open again and left him to stew in his anger. If he wanted to keep yanking my chain, then so be it. But I wouldn’t be sitting on pins and needles waiting for him to wrap his hand around my throat once more. I locked up my office and dragged my ass home, happy that for the first time since I had been hired I didn’t have to stay late.
But the last person I wanted to speak with knocked on my door.
“Hey! I’ve got wine!” Brit chirped.
I rolled my eyes. “Not tonight.”
“Oh, come on. You’re not working late, for once! Let’s celebrate.”
I charged for my door and ripped it open. “Do you want to know what happened at H.R. today?”
She grinned. “I knew you went. Tell me all about it. What did you file against him?”
I stood in her way so she couldn’t come inside. “Nothing. I actually told them that I had a co-worker threatening to come file a report on my behalf with things that weren’t true and the woman at the front desk gave me some great advice.”
